Delaware Governor Matt Meyer's administration introduced two bills on Monday that would authorize the state's banking commissioner to license cryptocurrency companies to take deposits and hold them as dollar-pegged stablecoins, according to legislation posted to the Delaware General Assembly website.

The proposal, unveiled at the University of Delaware's FinTech Innovation Hub, marks one of the earliest state-level efforts to formalize stablecoin-based banking under a dedicated licensing regime. State Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere) sponsored the package.

What does the bill actually do?

The bills would create a new category of "permitted payment stablecoin issuer" supervised by the Delaware banking commissioner. License holders could accept deposits and hold them as stablecoins — digital tokens backed by short-dated assets such as U.S. Treasury bills.

A key clause mirrors the federal GENIUS Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last summer: permitted issuers "may not pay interest or yield on payment stablecoins to holders." The state text adds a contingency that if federal law later permits such payments, Delaware rules would conform.

Who is backing the measure?

Meyer framed the bill as a response to decades of change since Delaware's 1980s-era financial reforms drew credit card issuers to Wilmington.

"While that creates a tremendous opportunity for many in the market, it also creates a threat to our state, to a bedrock industry in our state," Meyer said at the press conference.

Karyn Polak, president of the Delaware Bankers Association, appeared alongside the governor — a notable alignment given that banks have fought comparable federal proposals. She called the reforms "critically important" and said digital assets have outpaced statutes written decades ago.

Mantzavinos said he started drafting the bill in 2024, after watching Capital One acquire Discover — the last independent credit-card franchise born of the 1980s reforms. Work accelerated after Congress passed the GENIUS Act.

"We started to get a sense of seeing where some states were getting out over their skis a little bit, and being like, 'That's not us, that's not Delaware,'" Mantzavinos told Spotlight Delaware.

What is the federal fight the bill sidesteps?

The state legislation steers clear of the lobbying clash playing out in Washington over the CLARITY Act, which would let stablecoin issuers pay rewards. The exchange Coinbase, a primary investor in stablecoin issuer Circle, has pushed for that change.

In a March Truth Social post, Trump wrote that "Americans should earn more money on their money" and accused banks of "hitting record profits" while trying to "undermine our powerful Crypto Agenda."

Delaware's bill tracks the GENIUS Act's prohibition rather than the yield-friendly CLARITY framework.

How much industry lobbying has occurred?

Meyer told reporters the idea originated inside his office. Asked specifically about Coinbase, Meyer said he had spoken with a company official months ago about its move to reincorporate outside Delaware — confirmed by Reuters in November 2025 — and told the company its decision was "not in Delaware's interests."

As of Tuesday, the state's lobbying database listed no registered lobbyists working on the stablecoin bills.

Meyer dismissed the influence question: "Who lobbies or calls or happens to sneak through a door and get a word into me edgewise doesn't really matter."

What comes next?

Wyoming became the first state to issue a stablecoin earlier in 2026, sharpening competition for Delaware's traditional role as a corporate and financial domicile. The General Assembly must now schedule hearings and floor votes on Meyer's package before the session ends, with no firm deadline set for the banking commissioner to begin accepting license applications once the bills are enacted.